‘National treasure’ of Radio 4 to be spared the BBC’s budget axe

Fans of The Archers or the incisive style of Today programme presenters like James Naughtie can relax. Radio 4 is likely to be “ring-fenced” from sweeping cuts to be detailed at the BBC this week, according to reports.

The station was described in a BBC Trust report earlier this year as a “national treasure” held in “extremely high affection” by the majority of its audience.

It is also relatively cheap – and will be largely protected from cuts that will reduce the corporation’s budget by 16 per cent by 2016, it was reported yesterday.

Delivering Quality First, the BBC review, is to be unveiled on Thursday. A BBC spokeswoman said yesterday the corporation would not comment on “speculation” about its contents.

With BBC Scotland’s budget of £80 million facing cuts of £16m, television programmes such as River City, which costs £7m a year, are under scrutiny.

But while overnight programming could be cut from BBC One and BBC Two, with the latter channel facing a serious cut in budgets for shows, Radio 4 is expected to survive mostly unscathed.

“It is so influential that you don’t want to have anything that would impact against Today, PM or The World This Weekend,” one media analyst said.

In the week of the Conservative Party conference, “Radio 4 is very much the mainstay of middle Britain”, the analyst told The Scotsman.

The Today show is famous as the programme prime ministers tune in to to hear the performance of Cabinet members.

With the licence fee frozen until 2016, the BBC is facing a drop in its budget in real terms of about 16 per cent.

There is likely to be a focus on pulling down salaries of senior managers.

Earlier this year, BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten indicated “toxic” salaries would be cut after it emerged 110 staff were paid more than Prime Minister David Cameron’s £142,500 salary.

It is thought BBC Scotland could lose about 10 per cent of its staff, about 150 jobs, along with less pay for freelance presenters like John Beattie and Fred MacAulay.

BBC Two is said to be facing the worst of the cuts, with shows such as Flog It and Antiques Roadshow facing the axe, while the digital arts and culture channel BBC Four is also likely to see its programming affected.

Sports coverage could also suffer although the corporation will hold onto core sports including Wimbledon tennis, and share others with Sky.

The BBC spent £93m on programming for Radio 4 last year, at a cost of 1.4p per user hour. That compares with the £421m spent on television content for BBC Two, at a cost of 7.4p per user hour.